Exemplary Part-time Faculty Orientation: Professional Development Practices in the VCCS

by Susan O. Coffey

from VCCA Journal, Volume 7, Number 1, Summer 1992, 26-29

© Copyright 1992 VCCA Journal

Community colleges have been increasing their reliance on part-time faculty. In 1973, part-time faculty comprised 41 percent of all teaching faculty in community colleges nationwide. By 1987, part-time faculty made up 60 percent of all teaching faculty and taught 25 percent of all community college credit hours (American Association of Community and Junior Colleges, 1988).

In the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), the proportion of part-time faculty [65 percent in 1989] and their share of the total teaching load [40 percent in 1989] has exceeded the national community college average. In 1989-1990, when the VCCS experienced a 13 percent enrollment growth, 382 additional full-time faculty positions were required; these 382 positions, however, were funded at part-time faculty salary rates. As a result, in 1989-90 part-time faculty taught 47 percent of the student credit hours in the VCCS. At eight community colleges, part-time faculty taught over 49 percent of the student credit hours; 60 percent of the student credit hours were taught by part-time faculty at Rappahannock Community College. (Committee on the Future of the Virginia Community College System, 1988; JLARC, 1991).

In the future, the VCCS may never again have 47 percent of their credit hours taught by part-time faculty. With recent financial conditions in Virginia and the anticipated enrollment surge forecast for the late 1990's, however, it appears that the VCCS may continue to rely heavily on part-time faculty. As Ross (1982, p.118) states:

The fact that individual [part-time] faculty positions may be considered temporary should not blind administrators to the need for policy directed toward the use of temporary faculty positions as a permanent, long-term condition.

The challenge facing the VCCS, therefore, is to develop effective part-time faculty policies and procedures to insure quality instruction. The development of policies to manage part-time faculty in the VCCS has been recommended by the Southeastern Association for Colleges and Schools (SACS); by the 1988 Committee on the Future of Virginia Community College System in Towards the Year 2000; and by JLARC in its 1990 Review of the Virginia Community College System. In the spring of 1991, Chancellor Pierce appointed an Adjunct Faculty Committee, co-chaired by Nancy Sandberg, Dean of Instruction and Student Development at Paul D. Camp Community College, and Fay Avery, Division Chairman at Northern Virginia Community College, to develop guidelines for VCCS adjunct faculty policy as recommended by the 1990 JLARC Report:

Recommendation (6). The Virginia Community College System should establish a policy on the management of part-time faculty, including requirements for orientation, supervision, and evaluation of part-time faculty.

My doctoral dissertation, Part-Time Faculty Policies and Procedures in Public Community Colleges in Virginia (December, 1991), identified VCCS administrators' perceptions of both the problems and successful practices in the management of part-time faculty. One hundred VCCS academic deans, provosts, division chairs, and those continuous education directors and evening coordinators directly responsible for part-time faculty (a 74 percent response rate) completed questionnaires on part-time faculty selection, orientation, compensation, provision of support services, professional development, and evaluation. Of these six areas of personnel practices, orientation and professional development practices were rated as the most problematic: here the greatest discrepancies existing between current and preferred practices.

Great diversity exists in the VCCS, however, regarding part-time faculty management: Some colleges reported successfully eliminating or minimizing problems still plaguing other colleges. It appears that a system-wide sharing of exemplary part-time faculty practices has not taken place. This article, therefore, presents some of the exemplary practices used in the orientation/professional development of part-time faculty in the VCCS. The two major problems presented here were identified by administrators, and every exemplary practice listed has been or is currently in existence somewhere within the VCCS.

Problem: Lack of attendance of part-time faculty at orientation/professional development activities.

Exemplary Practices:

• Specifying requirements in part-time faculty appointment agreements for attendance at a minimum of one orientation/professional development activity each year
• Providing two general part-time faculty orientation sessions each year, during both fall and spring semesters
• Scheduling general orientation sessions on Saturday mornings during the academic year, with as much advance announcement of dates as possible
• Issuing invitations to part-time faculty to attend orientation sessions (with a letter of welcome from the college president or academic dean/provost) and including a copy of the agenda
• Using non-state dollars (grant money and local and foundation funds) to award stipends to part-time faculty who attend orientations and/or providing complementary breakfast or luncheons as part of orientation sessions
• Making videotapes of general orientation sessions available for those part-time faculty hired after the semester begins or during the summer semester
• Inviting part-time faculty to the in-house professional development activities held for full-time faculty
• Using non-state funds to provide funding for part-time faculty to attend off-campus professional development activities and for tuition reimbursement for relevant education
• Linking attendance at orientation/professional development activities to evaluations, providing merit pay increases whenever possible

Problem: Orientation/professional development activities are inadequate in meeting the needs of part-time faculty.

Exemplary Practices:

• In general orientation sessions, including topics of interest to both first-time and experienced part-time faculty, following this suggested format: (a) Introduction to college/student population/college procedures; (b) Campus tour; (c) Presentation/discussion of instructional topics such as teaching adults, evaluating students, writing to learn; (d) Departmental/divisional meeting - meeting with full-time faculty, faculty "mentors"
• Conducting a needs assessment of both full-time and part-time faculty to generate instructional topics for orientation
• Including part-time faculty in the planning of orientations
• Providing each part-time faculty member with a comprehensive part-time handbook containing information on the college, the student population, support services availability, and administrative and contractual issues.

B. H. Tuckman and H. P. Tuckman (1981) sum up nicely the task before us.

Part-timers are neither good nor bad for academe in their own right. Instead, they are a diverse group with different motives and goals. Whether we learn to employ them in a constructive manner will surely be one of the fascinating questions" (p.7).

Works Cited

American Association of Community and Junior Colleges. (1988). Statistical yearbook of community, technical,and junior colleges. Washington, D.C: Author.

Committee on the Future of the Virginia Community College.(1988). Toward the year 2000: The future of the Virginia community college system.

Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (1991). Follow-up report to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission on the review of the community college system: To the Governor and General Assembly of Virginia. Richmond: State Document No. 4.

Tuckman, H. P., & Biles, G. E. (1986). Part-time faculty personnel management policies. New York: MacMillan.

Tuckman, H. P., & Tuckman B. H. (1981). Who are the part-timers and what are colleges doing for them? Part-time faculty in colleges and universities. Current Issues in Higher Education. No. 4. (pp. 4-8). Washington D.C.: American association for Higher Education. (ERIC Document Ed 213 326).

Susan O. Coffey has been teaching English and speech at Central Virginia Community College since 1971. She also coordinates the College's cooperative education program. A recipient of the Chancellor's Fellowship for 1988-89, she completed all requirements for a doctorate in higher education administration at the University of Virginia in December of 1991. Her dissertation was on part-time faculty policies and procedures in the VCCS.